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I looked for one 69-year-old woman who had shared many intimate medical details on the Personal Genome Project web site. I decided to see if I could replicate her findings by seeking to identify someone from the PGP study who had made public her ZIP code, date of birth and gender. from MIT and is an expert in computer science that she is able to find such patterns where others cannot. One could suppose that because Sweeney has a Ph.D. In April, I wrote an article about one of Sweeney’s most recent experiments in which she identified more than 40 percent of anonymous volunteers in a sampled from a DNA study called the Personal Genome Project (PGP). “Or, if you are still not convinced, there are more than 32,000 5-digit ZIP codes in the United States so 73,000 x 32,000 is more than 2 billion possible combinations but there are only 310 million people in the United States.” “365 days in a year x 100 years x 2 genders = 73,000 unique combinations, and because most postal codes have fewer people, the surprise fades,” she explains on the site. She explains her surprising findings as a simple matter of statistics. It then identifies how many others it expects could match your profile. Sweeney identifies these probabilities in a web page called How Unique are You, which allows you to enter your birthdate, ZIP code and gender. If we look for women with the same birth day born a year later, only one meets that description, so there is an easy match.
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So, for example, just two women were born on in Cambridge’s 02138 ZIP code. That means that dozens and dozens of college students in the area do not share the same birth date. In some ZIP codes, such as Cambridge, Massachusetts, where thousands of college-age students live, it may be harder to identify someone with this data alone, but not impossible. That means that knowing three pieces of information as simple as, F, 60018, may be enough information to identify a woman in Chicago by name. So how does your ZIP code fit into all of this? Just knowing a birthdate, gender and ZIP code is enough information to identify as many as 87 percent of people in the United States, according to pioneering data privacy work done by Harvard Professor Latanya Sweeney. You are a prize in a vast and lucrative treasure hunt, whether or not you want to be, and whether or not you realize it. Companies, famed and obscure, mine this information, hoping to understand you and how best to market to you and millions of other consumers like you. ZIP Codes can represent an area within a state (an area that may or may not cross county boundaries), an area that crosses state boundaries (an unusual condition), or a single building or company that has a very high mail volume.Commercial entities and researchers are constantly collecting information about you as you go through your daily life. A ZIP Code is a 5-digit code that identifies a specific geographic delivery area. ZIP is an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan. If found, the standardized address and ZIP+4 Code Code will be returned.į.Y.I. Valid US Cities/Zip Codes Valid US Cities and Zip CodesĪdditional USPS City/State/ZIP Code Associations.Įnter an address.